It's a marketing dictum: consumers must first be aware of a product, before they'll consider buying it. States across the country collectively invest over $665 million to raise recognition of their state and attract tourists to visit their destinations.
They do so because they recognize that tourism is a potent driver for their state's economy. Tourism generates additional economic activity and creates more jobs and tax revenue for host states.
Importantly, tourism destinations and activities like fishing, swimming, downhill skiing or snowmobiling, and the jobs they create, will never be relocated or outsourced out of the state. As such, any investment made in expanding tourism will always strengthen that state's economy, because those jobs stay put.
State investment in tourism promotion funding is sound public policy because such programs produce a dramatic return on that investment. In fact recent studies conducted on the Michigan promotion program found that $3.43 in new tax revenues are generated for every $1 invested in tourism promotion. Better still, the vast majority of those tax revenues are received by the State Treasury that same fiscal year!
Click here for a brief summary of Travel Michigan's promotion program and detail on the additional tax revenues that program produces for our state.
Michigan has recently made a commendable investment in the creation of new high-tech jobs through the 21st Century Jobs Fund. That's good news for our state's economy, but it will take years for that $1 billion program to fund the creation of those new jobs and even more time before those high-tech industries grow and flourish.
Investing in tourism promotion increases the strength and vitality of our state's economy almost immediately. And that's good news for Michigan!
Want to learn more? Click here for an Executive Summary of the “Michigan Image and 2005 Advertising Evaluation Study,” prepared for Travel Michigan by Longwoods International.
Longwoods International is an acclaimed market research firm that specializes in assessment and efficacy of advertising programs for a variety of industries including auto manufacturers, telecommunications, travel & tourism, financial, and retail. Click here to learn more about Longwoods International.
